No deposit electricity plans also offer a subjective advantages. Thanks to smart meters, electricity providers can offer you smartphone apps that send notifications when your balance is getting low, so you can purchase more kilowatt-hours before your account drops to zero. However, this also means you will track your energy consumption more frequently, as opposed to only once per billing period. Energy consumers who monitor their kilowatt-hour usage tend to consume less energy that those who only wait for power bills once per billing period.
As they’re advertised, the Digital Discount plan appears to save you $4 — but only if you use 32 percent of your energy on the weekends, which is the stat Reliant used to create the average price it advertises. Say you often travel for business during the week, and are only home cranking the air conditioner on weekends. If your energy use skews to 55 percent weekend use (for Reliant, that means 8 pm on Friday through 12 am Monday), suddenly Truly Free Weekends becomes a much better deal.
Fixed energy plans offer you a chance to compare energy rates in your home or business energy market. You then choose an energy rate and plan that best works for you. When you choose a fixed rate option your rate never changes for the duration that you choose. You enjoy the same prices for your electricity or natural gas service no matter what the energy markets do.
Twenty bucks compared to a $2,000 bill? Not much to write home about, but hey — it’s free money. And, true, you’ll still get some free money when you use less energy, but rewards only really seem reward-y if you're shelling out big bucks. That same Direct Energy plan only yields about $6 in Plenti points per year if you use 500 kWh of electricity each month.
Your most effective weapon, however, is a site like ComparePower (Power to Choose) to locate and compare details from various Houston electricity resellers. In one fell swoop, you will efficiently and quickly locate and classify cheap electricity resellers all on one page, instead of wasting your valuable time searching out available companies and visiting their websites one by one (who even does that any more?).
Residential real-time pricing customers pay electric supply prices that vary by the hour. To make a meaningful comparison between variable RRTP rates and RES offers, customers should compare their past electric supply cost savings from the total Electric Supply section of the bill, provided by their RRTP provider, with an electric supply cost savings estimate provided by RESs. Alternatively, customers can compute their average real-time hourly price in cents per kWh (each month the average real-time price is equal to the total of the Electric Supply section of the bill divided by the monthly kWh) to compare with RES offers posted in cents per kWh. Customer should bear in mind, however, that because RRTP rates vary over time, past savings do not predict future savings, but only serve as a guide to compare past performance.
Texas currently produces and consumes more electricity than any other state in the country. This energy consumption is due to its size, but the ample land makes it a major producer of wind power – a renewable, or green, energy source. The environmentally friendly energy created by wind power is available to many Texas residents to supply the electricity in their home or business.
Fixed-Rate Plans: These plans are steady and predictable; the price per kWh you sign up for will remain that same for the entirety of your contract. (The only changes in your bill will be from forces outside of your REP's control, like changes in TDU fees, or changes in federal, state, or local laws.) Often fixed-rate plans will have a slightly higher price per kWh than others, but you're paying for the predictability. They're great if you live by your budget – and even greater if you happen to sign up when rates are low. The fixed-rate plans of our five Texas providers typically started at 12 months, with some extending up to three years, but we spotted a couple from Reliant that offered fixed rates for six month contracts as well.
If you’re looking for a new electricity deal, you’re not alone: 319,000 electricity customers switched energy supplier during January 2018, according to OFGEM*. Shopping around for the best electricity deal is simpler than you might think – but there are bound to be a few questions. Here’s everything you ever wanted to know about comparing electricity deals.

If you live in the greater Houston area, there are over 60 different energy suppliers competing for your business. Many of these providers have websites that are confusing and difficult to navigate, their rates buried in misleading advertising and dense jargon. Who has the time to sort through and keep track of options across all these different sites?